One of the UK's most highly regarded property advisers has taken a lead role within the UK's largest speculative business park project.

David Hunter has today accepted the role of Chairman of the £330m Maxim office park development, on the M8 motorway near Glasgow.

Hunter brings a wealth of experience to the role from his background as Managing Director of £6.5bn Arlington Property Investors and prior to that Aberdeen Property Investors. He was also one of the founding fathers of Chiswick Park in London, widely seen as the UK's most innovative office park.

Work on the Maxim development, on the former Chunghwa Picture Tubes site at Eurocentral in Lanarkshire, is on schedule to build 10 flexible high quality office buildings, totalling 756,000 sq ft, by March 2010.

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Karen Campbell, Chief Executive of Maxim, said: "David's breadth of experience and knowledge of the UK and international market will make a significant contribution to the Maxim team.

"Development at Maxim is on track and, as scheduled, we will have the first two office buildings complete by December this year. We are in active discussions with significant potential tenants which we envisage announcing to the market in the coming months."

David Hunter said: "Maxim is an impressive and forward thinking project, not just because of its sheer size and scale but due to what it will bring to Scotland.

"The creation of a world-class business facility that will provide a home for thousands of jobs north of the border and attract international business is a much needed entity and a project which I am keen to play part of. We are offering occupier packages which are highly competitive, not just in UK terms but also by global standards.

"Private investment of this magnitude is unheard of in the current marketplace and to be part of the creation of a new business hub is a major attraction."

Hunter is a past President of the British Property Federation and last year was inaugural Chairman of the Scottish Property Federation. His company, Hunter Advisers, supports property funds investing in the UK, Germany, France and India, among other activities.

(GK/JM)